1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to modifying custom images for use as background images during printing or displaying.
2. Description of Related Art
Background images have a variety of applications. For example, background images are used for (1) advertisement purposes, on products tailored to individuals or groups of individuals, such as medical equipment, real estate listings and the like; (2) decorative purposes, in products such as checks, greeting cards, stationary and clothing; (3) identification purposes, in products such as passports, licenses and identification badges and (4) validation purposes, in products such as legal documents and legal tender.
The background images must be pleasing without adversely affecting the application on which the image resides. A pleasing image can be defined as an image having good color, good contrast, good sharpness and good exposure. A pleasing image is one that is easily recognized by an average consumer. A pleasing background image is one that exhibits the previous attributes in a manner that does not interfere with the primary application.
Checks are one example of a primary application, such as, for example, a financial interaction, where a pleasing background image is desired, but, at the same time, should not interfere with the foreground financial and personal data. Many financial institutions offer various pre-selected images that can be printed in the background of client checks. The images are pleasing (i.e., easily recognized by the client), and more importantly, do not interfere with the check's function.
Background images are typically carefully generated by graphic designers. These professionals generate images with specific applications in mind. Individual images are generated to be used by a multitude of consumers. For example, a graphic designer may design images of animals for a financial institution to be used as check backgrounds, or the designer may design images of common holiday scenes for use as background images in sales applications. These images are not personalized for individual clients. Rather, clients of the financial institution may select one of the background images or image sets designed by the graphic designer, but do not have the option of selecting a custom image, such as a picture of the individual client's pet. The pre-designed background images thus often lack one desired attribute of pleasing background images, the attribute of being easily recognized and personal.
It is impractical for graphic designers to design background images for individual consumers for every situation in which a background image may be used. It would take a great deal of time, and would subsequently involve high costs.
Individuals have the ability to prepare custom images of personal subjects. For example, various types of film-based and digital cameras are commercially available that can be used by the average consumer. However, the characteristics of photographs taken by individuals can vary greatly. As a result, these images often suffer from one or more image deficiencies, such as sharpness or exposure. As a result, no simple method exists to convert individual images for use as background images without subsequent processing by a human expert.
Systems exist that can modify images by applying a set of commonly desired values to the features of the images. Images with varying values for various image features, such as color, contrast, sharpness, exposure, luminance, etc., can be adjusted to a set of commonly desired values for these image features. In this manner, images from individual consumers can be improved to overcome differences in image feature values.
One such system is known as Automated Image Enhancement and is described in farther detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,581,370, 5,450,502, 5,450,217 and 5,414,538, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Image enhancement systems are coupled to a shift from “accurate reproduction” to “preferred reproduction”. In the past, a typical application for copiers or scan-to-print image processing systems was to reproduce an input image as accurately as possible, i.e., render a copy. Thus, copies have been rendered as accurately as possible—including flaws. However, as individuals have become more knowledgeable in their document reproduction requirements, they have recognized that an exact copy is often not what is wanted. Instead, they would rather obtain the best possible image output.
Until recently, image quality from the output of a copier or a scan-to-print system was directly related to the input image quality. An example of an input image is a photograph. Unfortunately, photography is an inexact science, particularly among amateurs. Thus, original photographs are often of poor quality. Alternatively, technology, age and/or image degradation variations often result in images having an unsatisfactory and/or undesirable appearance. What is desired then is a copy giving the best possible image, rather than an exact copy of the original image.
Photography has long dealt with this issue. Analog filters and illumination variations can improve the appearance of images in an analog photographic process. Thus, for example, yellow filters enhance the appearance of white clouds against a blue sky in black and white images. Furthermore, various electro-photographic devices, including digital copiers, can clean up and improve images by adjusting threshold values, filtering parameters, and/or background suppression parameters. Generally, these methods are manual methods that must be selected on an image-by-image basis. Unfortunately, the casual user is not usually skilled enough to perform these operations. The inability to perform image enhancement operations is additionally exacerbated when dealing with color controls.
Automated image enhancement operates to vary images which are not perceived as good images, but does not operate on images which do not need to be improved, thereby allowing a stable process.